Three-set triumph sets up title match vs. Marion Bartoli

Sabine Lisicki secured a place in her first grand slam final Thursday with an impressive three-set victory over Agnieszka Radwanska at Wimbledon.

Lisicki's odds for victory at the grass-court tournament significantly shortened after her fourth-round win over Serena Williams, but she was made to prove her pedigree again toppling Radwanska, the women's fourth seeded.

Wimbledon 2013: Sabine Lisicki makes her way to the women's final. (AP Photo)

And she did so in style, playing her part in an epic contest on Centre Court before coming through a 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 winner in two hours and 18 minutes to set up a clash with France's Marion Bartoli.

Bartoli, who is seeded 15th at the All England Club, had little trouble in dispatching Kirsten Flipkens in the first match of the day, running out a 6-1, 6-2 winner.

In Friday's men's semifinals, top seed Novak Djokovic will play eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro; and No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz, a 22-year-old from Poland who is making his deepest run at a Grand Slam, goes against No. 2 Andy Murray.

Lisciki, of Germany, and Radwanska, of Poland, offered up few opportunities to break in the opening exchanges of the match and, as a result, it was perhaps no surprise that Lisicki's first breakthrough came thanks to good luck rather than good tennis.

A fortunate net cord caught Radwanska off guard, and forced the Pole into a poor shot which landed in the tramlines across court and saw her surrender the first break of serve in the match.

Lisicki capitalized on that boost well, and had little trouble in serving out the set to take an early, confidence-boosting advantage in the semi-final.

The 23-year-old then looked ready to cruise to victory in the second, as she took a break in the very first game which appeared to have put her on the path to the final.

But being so clearly in front only seemed to make Lisicki nervous, and she subsequently lost her next two service games to go 3-1 down in the second set.

Radwanska endured a small wobble in the fifth game as she dropped a break of her own, but went on to win the next three in a row—largely helped by Lisicki racking up a tally of 17 unforced errors in the set—to restore parity.

The decider began in a similarly topsy-turvy fashion as Radwanska took a 3-0 lead before being pegged back to 3-3, but Lisicki looked to have landed a decisive blow when she broke in the ninth to go 5-4 up.

The German needed only to see out a service game to secure her place in the final, but seemed weighed down by the knowledge of that fact as she failed to do so despite pulling back to deuce from 40-15 down.

However, she refused to be denied her big moment, and grabbed another break in the 15th game to go 8-7 up before smashing her 60th winner of the match down the line in the 16th to secure a final berth.